


finding the time

by Anonymous



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Aging Talk, Comfort, F/M, Fjord Talk, Fluffy mother daughter talks, Gen, Jester Lavorre Needs a Hug, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Post Episode 129, Spoilers, and Marion has plenty of hugs to give
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 21:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30011046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Jester isn't worried that her parents seem to be so awkward with each other when they reunite.  They will have to talk to each other, eventually, since they're trapped underground together.  And they're both private people, so it makes sense.  They don't want to talk about important things in front of a bar full of people.Jester's the same way.  It's funny how she wouldn't have to worry about finding time to spend with Fjord if she wasn't so intent on waiting on a small measure of privacy.***Or, Jester and Marion understand that there are certain times when it's better to have certain conversations than others.
Relationships: Fjord/Jester Lavorre, Jester Lavorre & Marion Lavorre | Ruby of the Sea, The Gentleman | Babenon Dosal/Marion Lavorre | Ruby of the Sea
Comments: 7
Kudos: 102
Collections: Anonymous





	finding the time

**Author's Note:**

> I had a quiet day at work, and harnassed the powers of my ADHD to write a whole fic in a few hours. Yay!
> 
> Fun fact: my grandmother's name was Marion, and her mother-in-law, my great-grandmother, was named Marian. I have double and triple-checked the Wiki and this fic to make sure I consistently used the correct spelling, but apologies if I failed to do that, because I'm so used to both spellings. 
> 
> Published anonymously for my sister, V, who loves Fjorester and loves Marion and Jester's relationship as much as I do. But if she's not going to give me her pseud so that I can properly gift this fic to her, then she doesn't get to know my pseud either. (V, if you don't want me to know your pseud because you've published some really kinky smut, I promise I won't judge you for it.).

Jester followed her mother into the bedroom the Gentleman had provided for Marion, two steps behind. Jester carried one of her mother’s bags and the mostly-full bottle of wine that the bartender had brought to Marion at the Gentlemen’s request.

Her parent’s reunion after so many years – her lifetime, plus a few months – had been tense. They were both perfectly cordial and polite, very formal, but it was clear to everyone who watched – even to the people hanging around the bar, who had no idea that there was a connection between the Gentleman and the beautiful tiefling woman who’d just shown up – that there was so much unsaid between the two of them.

For two people who were usually so charming, it was strange to see them at a loss for words.

Jester wasn’t too concerned about their awkwardness getting in the way of… whatever would happen between them. They _wanted_ to talk, Jester knew it. Give it a few days of being stuck together in the same underground bar, and they would _have_ to talk. But they had some pretty important conversations to have, and neither one would want to have those conversations in front of other people. Jester knew that both of her parents were private people when it came to certain things.

 _She was the same way, wasn’t she?_ Jester thought, her failed attempts to pull Fjord aside for the sake of a conversation nagging at the back of her mind.

Jester sighed as she placed the wine bottle on the bedside table, and set the bag on the bed itself. She started pulling clothes and books from her mother’s bag, laying them on the bed for Marion to organize as she saw fit. 

“So,” Marion said, clearing her throat with a delicate cough. “You will be leaving as soon your friends return with more healing potions?”

“Yeah,” Jester said, setting one of her mother’s favorite books of poetry down on the bed. “We have to go visit Caduceus’ family to learn about some weird dreams they’ve been having, that we think are connected to the weird city I told you about. It’s – ” There are a thousand things Jester could tell her mother. Things that Jester _wants_ to tell her mother. 

It was so strange, after keeping so many secrets from her, about the danger she and the Nein were in, now that Marion knew about the city and the Assembly and had experienced first-hand the danger of traveling, Jester wanted to tell her mama everything. She wanted to curl up and cry and tell her mother every worry she’d had since she first left Nicodranas almost a year before.

But they didn’t have time for that.

“We’re running out of time,” is all Jester could say.

“I understand,” Marion whispered. And Jester knew it was true; her mother always understood.

Silence fell comfortably between the two women as they stood on opposite sides of the bed. They pulled fine robes and elegant dresses from the bags and laid them out on the duvet, to be placed in the dresser and wardrobe later. Jester diligently completed her chore of sorting out daywear from nightwear, stopping only once she heard a noise of disapproval slip from between her mother’s lips.

“Oh, Marion,” the woman said to herself. Jester looked up from the bag to see her mother pull her glasses out of the bag. Marion held them up to the candlelight, squinting at the lenses. “Jester, dear? May I borrow your keen eyes? I did not remember to pack the case for my reading glasses, and I think they got scratched in my bag, but I can’t see quite well enough to tell. Would you look at them, and tell me how bad it is?”

Jester clambered up onto the bed in order to take the glasses from her mother’s outstretched palm and held them up to the light. Sure enough, both lenses bore cross-hatched scratches.

“It’s not so bad I can’t fix it,” Jester said, giving Marion a weak smile. She waved her hand and muttered a quick prayer to the Traveler to Mend the lenses. With a faint green shimmer, the scratches disappeared.

“That’s very handy. Thank you, my dear.” With a warm but tired smile, Marion took the glasses from Jester and slid them onto her face.

“Of course, mama.”

Jester went back to work, stifling a sigh. 

_At least she could do one thing to be helpful,_ Jester thought, as she fervently tried to avoid thinking about the battle against the elemental the previous evening, _how everyone got hurt and she was so useless to heal them, or fight the elementals, and for some reason she thought she could actually jump over lava –_

“Jester?” Marion asked, her soft voice interrupting the worst of Jester’s thoughts. “Finding my glasses again reminded me..." Marion cleared her throat. "I didn’t notice until last night, when you were far enough away that I could really see it, but, um, Jester... dear, did your horns grown longer?”

The last robe in Marion’s bag slipped through Jester’s fingers and onto the floor, as Jester felt a sharp, cold feeling run down her spine.

There was clear concern in Marion’s golden eyes, and Jester’s mouth went dry. Jester nodded, finding herself at a loss for anything else to say. Marion quickly looked down, down at her own hands as she worried at her cuticles. As Jester reminded herself about how much better it felt to be more honest with her mother about how dangerous her life was, Jester took a deep breath and concentrated on the relief she would feel as soon as she told her mother what had happened.

“There were these statues, in Eiselcross. We played boulder-parchment-shears to see who had to investigate them, and I won. Or, lost, I don’t know which it was. But I stepped between them, and couldn’t move until I asked a question, so I asked to learn more about the city. When the statues let go of me, they put a curse on me that took a few years of my life. We don’t know how many, we think five years, at the most. It’s not so bad – I only look a little different, I don’t feel any different. And Caleb offered to do the same spell he used on Veth, to take me back to my actual age. I don’t know if I’m going to do it, since I really – I really don’t care. I don’t feel any different, and it didn’t actually hurt me. It could have been a lot worse, you know?

“But I know it’s weird. I was so worried about telling you – I just didn’t want you to be upset, or too worried about the things that we do while we’re adventuring, and solving mysteries, or whatever.”

Before Jester could even realize it, Marion was standing at her side. Her mother was still deeply concerned, and it showed on every inch of her face, even as Marion forced a smile and blinked away tears from her eyes. Jester tried to smile in return; but when her mother pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and ran a thumb across the point of her horns, a knot formed in her throat, her lower lip began to wobble, and her eyes welled with tears.

“Jester,” Marion said, laying a hand on her daughter’s cheek. “I am always worried about you. I have always worried about you, even when you were just a tiny baby held safely in my arms – that’s my job and my prerogative as your mother. As soon as you leave, I’ll start worrying about you all over again.

“But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned within the past day, it’s that between the seven of you, you and your friends have a solution to many problems. And you work together, and care for each other, and keep each other safe. So if you want your friend Caleb to give you a new, younger body, do that. If you don’t want that, then don’t. Don’t worry about what I think, my gem. Don’t worry about me when you go back to the north. Worry more about keeping your friends and yourself safe, as I know they'll do for you. I know you are in capable hands. And I’m so proud of you, you know that?”

 _That was_ what pushed Jester over the edge. A sob escaped her throat, and the tears in her eyes fell unbidden. She leaned into her mother’s arms, as they wrapped tightly around her and pulled her close.

“I’ve always known you were clever and creative, and so strong, and so brave,” Marion whispered in her daughter’s ear, running her hand through Jester’s hair, rocking side to side on her feet, anything to soothe her little sapphire. “And I actually got to see it! Jester, the magic you did, it was incredible. You protected your friends, and you helped them hit that creature in the cave so that we would be safe. And then this morning, you actually transported us from one plane of existence to another. Jester, do you know how few people in Exandria even know that there are multiple plains, let alone are capable of visiting a different one? I could tell you in a million different ways how proud of you I am, and it still wouldn’t be enough to really explain it to you. So the next time you’re in Eiselcross – investigate all of the cursed statues you want. I know you’ll be okay.”

Marion punctuated her words with a few kisses to the crown of Jester’s head. They held each other tightly until Jester’s sobs slowed, a minute or so later. Marion successfully forced her own tears away, ready to be cried once Jester and her friends left again.

With a deep breath, Jester pulled away from her mother’s embrace, just far enough to wipe the tears from her face with the cuff of her shirt. She sniffled once more, and then looked up at her mother’s shining eyes, and managed to find the strength within her to smile.

“Well, it wasn’t all bad, you know,” Jester said, blotting the other side of her face clean. “The statue thing, I mean. It finally got Fjord to tell me he has feelings for me, and he kissed me, so…”

Marion tried to keep her face calm, and not to tense up. Jester’s words had surprised her. Not that Fjord having feelings for Jester or that the knowledge that two of them kissed was a surprise, but… well, if you’d asked her weeks ago, or months ago, Marion would have said that the two of them were already together. She’d seen it in her daughter's eyes when she introduced Fjord the first time she brought him and her other friends in the Chateau, and she’d seen the way Fjord looked at her daughter when Jester wasn’t paying attention. And it was impossible to miss them looking at each other the night of the party they all attended weeks before, and Marion herself had stood in the middle of their flirting as the three of them walked back to the Chateau together. They had seemed so comfortable together, not at all like a new couple, or two people with unresolved feelings. 

_Had they really not –? Never mind. That’s not important,_ Marion thought _._ Whatever the pace their relationship moved at, it was the right pace for them, and it was no concern of Marion’s.

“Really?” Marion asked. Her genuine happiness seemed to cover up the worst of her surprise. “I could tell, he adores you. And I could tell, you’re quite charmed by him as well. That’s why I always teased him more than the others.” _More than Jester’s other friends, and more than her other friends who also had feelings for her daughter,_ that was what Marion didn’t say. Marion was not oblivious – that’s why, when the Mighty Nein asked to use her bathroom for something, she wondered –

 _No,_ Marion reminded herself. _Not the time to think about that._

“I am, mama,” Jester said, keeping her voice hushed, as if her feelings were still a secret. “He’s my best friend, but he’s more than that. I mean, I love all of my friends in different ways, but... He’s always been special, you know? He makes me so happy." 

Jester looked up at her mother, and though her smile was coy, her eyes revealed much more.

With a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, Marion sat on the bed and pulled Jester down to sit beside her. Though they sat right on a pile of Marion’s clothes, neither one cared.

“Tell me everything.”

Jester’s smile grew, and she started talking a mile a minute. Jester told Marion things that she’d already known – how they’d met outside of Port Damali, how Fjord had been nothing had been polite and respectful and kind and funny since the day they’d met, how they’d always had each other to talk to and confide in. She talked about nights on the deck of a ship, watching colorful jellyfish blooms, and days spent exploring the ocean floor. She talked about Fjord using his magic to save her from falling from an unbelievably tall tree, and how Fjord had turned his back on the mysterious sea monster that first granted him magic to become a follower of Melora.

And she told Marion things that she’d never told her mother before, too. How she and Fjord stayed by each other’s side when they’d been taken captivity, and how some sort of situation with another ship’s captain led to Jester deciding that Fjord couldn't hold her in any special regard, and how Jester had denied her own feelings for Fjord for quite some time to avoid any chance of heartbreak. 

But then she shook her head and told Marion the more recent things—happier things, things they hadn’t had the chance to talk about before. How he’d been the only person she felt like she could be honest with when things were getting tense and confusing at TravelerCon. How Fjord had gifted her with a little unicorn porcelain figurine, just because he’d wanted to surprise her. How she and Fjord had been talking about their future one night and he had such a hopeful and significant look on his face that Jester was certain that he was going to confess his feelings then and there – or she would have confessed first if they weren't expected to join the rest of the Nein for dinner.

Jester told her about the quiet knock she’d heard on her bedroom door the day after the curse took years away from her life, and how she’d invited Fjord into her room. How he asked how she was feeling after her encounter with the statues and confessed his own fears, before he kissed her for the first time. She told Marion how they’d spent several nights cuddled together, and how, after a very dramatic battle with a white dragon that held a grudge against their group, he confessed his feelings for her in front of all of their friends.

 _It was all… very romantic,_ Marion thought. It felt more like the romantic stories of classic literature that Jester always hated reading than the smutty novels that Marion pretended not to know that Jester kept hidden under her bed. But the wide, unguarded smile that stretched across Jester’s face was enough to show that she was more than happy with how her and Fjord’s story had unraveled.

“He makes me so happy, mama. And I think I make him happy, too.”

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Marion said, her voice a little teasing. “You do make him happy. I know he’s head over heels for you, Jester.”

Jester just smiled and blushed, matching her mother’s gaze but unable to say the words bouncing around her mind.

 _She was head over heels for him_ _too_ , Jester wanted to say. But she couldn’t – _as much as she loved her mama, Fjord was the one who deserved to hear it from her first. If only_ _they actually had the time to talk._

While Jester pretended she wasn’t feeling sore over the fact that every chance she had to try and talk to Fjord in privacy had been thoroughly ruined, Marion smiled down at her daughter with pride. But Marion’s feelings of pride and happiness were tainted, tainted with the memories of past conversations the two of them had together. Conversations Marion now regretted. 

“Jester, dear. I should apologize to you.” Marion reached over to the bedside table and took a generous sip from the wine glass she swiped from the table. “I know I warned you many times when you were younger that romance and such intimacy could be… a gamble. And it’s true, they are. No relationship is guaranteed to last or to work in the first place. But I should have trusted you more, and allowed you to explore and learn about these things yourself, without my prejudices.”

 _Just another one_ _of_ _her failings as a mother,_ Marion thought.

But Jester was having none of that. She leaned forward and gave her mother a quick hug, careful not to jostle the wine glass held in Marion’s hand.

“I’m not upset about that, mama. I understand, you were just giving me the best advice you had.”

Marion shook her head – Jester was too generous by half. But this wasn’t the time to have that conversation, when Jester was going to leave again within the hour. Perhaps another day.

“Things sound like they’re going quite well between the two of you, anyway. I don’t think you need any of my advice, past or present.”

 _W_ _ell, if only mama knew how wrong she was,_ said a little voice in the back of Jester’s head, one that sounded just a little bit too much like Artie. Jester had a question, just one, that she didn’t really know if her mother would be willing to answer, but she didn’t want to ask anyone else.

“Well, actually.” Jester bit at her bottom lip and waggled her eyebrows. “I did kind of want your advice on one subject.

“What is it?” Marion asked, her voice and her expression both trepidatious. 

“How do I know when it’s the right time to tell Fjord that I want to climb him like a tree?”

Marion laughed, loudly and with her full body.

“Jester,” she said, her smile creeping into the sound of her voice. “As much as I would like to give you advice on that topic, I can’t. Only the two of you can decide when it’s the right time to… explore that aspect of your relationship. That being said, I think you should drop some hints that your thoughts are heading in that direction before you actually proposition your young man. You can be very honest and open about these things, and while I’m sure Fjord knows that about you and admires that very same quality, you might give the poor boy a heart attack if you tell him that.”

The look that Jester gives her mother is downright evil. It makes Marion laugh again.

“Listen, Jester. If you want to take things slowly, that’s fine. And if you don’t, that’s fine too. But test the waters first, and see where Fjord’s feelings on the matter lie. Whenever you have the chance to spend some time together, drop a few hints that you’re interested, and listen and watch for his reaction. Don’t make any assumptions about what he will or won’t want to do with you – Jester, what’s the matter?”

The smile and the mischief faded from Jester’s face in an instant, and Marion’s gut twisted, hoping that hadn’t said anything wrong.

“It’s stupid, mama.” She shook her head, and cast her eyes down, to the bed and the pile of clothes that laid forgotten between them.

“If it makes you feel such a way, it’s not stupid. What’s wrong, Jester? Did I say something hurtful?”

“No, no, not at all.” Jester looked up again, and for a moment Marion believed her daughter was going to cry, again. But Jester just laughed, the sound a little bitter, and a little too hollow. It wasn’t the way Jester was supposed to laugh. “It’s just – we’ve barely had any time to be alone. I get it, it’s only been, what, nine days? Or maybe ten days since he first kissed me? That’s not a long time, but – it feels like it’s been forever.

“And I know he only confessed his feelings for me because things were getting stressful and scary, and things _have still been_ stressful and scary, so we’ve either been stuck with the rest of our friends with no privacy, or we’ve been alone but we’ve had important things to do – or yesterday, when he went into the Happy Fun Ball, that’s the second time that we’ve been separated from each other in the past few days. Every time I try to talk to him, or I want to find a way to be alone, something horrible always happens. We’ve just been really unlucky, I suppose.”

Jester gave a resigned sigh, before she sat up straight, pulled her shoulders back, and offered her mother a melancholy smile.

“Jester,” Marion, said, pushing another lock of hair that had escaped Jester’s braid behind her ear. “What are you doing here with me, if your Fjord is waiting for you downstairs?”

“Mama, I want to spend time with you before I have to leave.”

Jester’s tone offered no room for an argument.

Well, it sure is a good thing Marion’s used to solving her problems without resulting to an argument, isn’t it?

Marion kissed Jester on the forehead, and turned away from her daughter to look down at the nearly empty glass of wine in her hand. Marion swirled what little wine was left around the glass and gave it a quick sniff. Not because there was something she was going to learn about the wine’s taste and quality that she didn’t already know after drinking most of a glass – she was just trying to hide the fact that she was deep in thought.

It wasn’t a complicated plan that Marion came up with in those scant few seconds, but it would work well enough.

With a heavy sigh, Marion drank the last sip of wine and leaned over Jester’s lap to place the glass back on the table.

“Jester, dear? There’s a bathroom and water closet in this inn, isn’t there?”

“Of course. Turn left as you walk out of the door, and walk to the end of the balcony. It’s right at the end, you can’t miss it.” Jester answered, her eyes bright

“Thank you.”

Marion pressed another quick kiss to Jester’s temple, just because she could, and gave her daughter a reassuring smile.

“Stay here. We can talk more when I get back,” she lied.

Jester nodded, smoothing down the wrinkles from her burnt, battle-worn skirt.

With no remorse whatsoever, Marion strolled out of the bedroom, and turned to the right. She descended the stairs, holding her head high and deliberately ignoring all of the questioning looks she received from the bar’s regulars as she moved along. She went directly to the table in the corner where Jester’s friends sat, empty plates and tankards stacked in a pile in the middle of the table. 

“Fjord,” she called, and in an instant, the handsome young man turned away from his friends and their feeble conversation.

“Yes?”

“Do you have a moment? Jester and I need an extra pair of hands unpacking, and your height will come in handy.”

He smiled at her, politely, and pushed his chair away from the table. The other members of the Nein watched as Fjord stood and adjusted his armor and coat, and then their attention turned back to the half-hearted discussion of their upcoming plans.

With her best charming smile, Marion turned and lead Fjord back to the stairs. As she reached the landing, Marion heard his soft, Port Damali accented voice ask from behind her, “so what is it that you need help with?”

“Nothing,” Marion said, keeping pace. “I deceived you.”

Fjord didn’t say anything. Marion was a little disappointed she didn’t get to see the bewildered look on his face as she walked straight back to her bedroom, but she could imagine it well enough.

 _If Fjord was going to be with Jester,_ Marion thought, _then he would have to learn that Jester didn’t get all of her tricks from the Traveler._

Marion quickened her pace for the last few steps and pushed her bedroom door open wide. She waved Fjord through the door with the flourish of a hand, and though he hesitated for a quarter of a second, he walked in.

Marion stepped through the door after Fjord, but she did not go far. She didn’t even let go of the door. She simply held her ground and cleared her throat.

Jester was still sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from the door, and she had not noticed that more than one set of footsteps walked into the room. When she stood up and turned around, expecting to see only her mother, Marion could see the sweet, surprised smile on Jester’s face as soon as she saw Fjord standing there.

And, more importantly, Marion could see the heart-stoppingly sincere, besotted smile on Fjord’s face, a smile that revealed his handsome tusks and lit up his eyes with happiness.

 _Good_. The very least that Jester deserved from a partner was someone looked at her with complete adoration in their eyes.

“Mama?”

Marion winked at Jester and then turned her head to fix Fjord with a more serious look.

“I will come and knock on the door whenever your friends Caleb and Caduceus return. Until then, the two of you have time alone to talk, or relax – whatever you wish to do. Take advantage of what time you have together, even if it’s only a few stolen moments.”

She ignored their dumbfounded expressions, and stepped out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

***

 _T_ _here_ , Marion said to herself, exhaling slowly as she stepped away from the door and towards the balcony overlooking the bar. _If Jester wanted to play matchmaker, then so could she._

Marion relaxed, or tried to, for the first time since she had been woken up from her nap by Jester the day before. This place was safe, and the necklace protected her. She would be fine under the Myriad’s care, and Jester would be fine in the company of her friends. They would go to the far north and they would succeed in protecting the world from this strange threat, and if they didn’t – then none of Marion’s worries mattered anyway.

_Was there_ _any_ _comfort to be found in fatalism?_

No. Once again, this was not the right time or place for that line of thought, and Marion was not in the right mindset to think about such things.

Leaning across the balcony’s banister, Marion took another deep breath, and let her thoughts wander in more positive directions. She thought about Caduceus, and the magic he used to save Luc’s life, and she thought about how Jester was just as capable of such magic. She thought about how the Mighty Nein worked together and cared for each other.

And of course, she thought about Jester, and she thought about Jester and Fjord, together. There were no guarantees in life, but Jester deserved happiness of her own, after all of the happiness she had given to others – and Fjord could contribute to that happiness. The two of them could settle down on the coast, in a house with walls that Jester could cover in murals and drawings, and Fjord could be the captain of his own ship. Jester could join him at sea whenever she wanted, or search for her own adventures on land if she didn’t.

They would have friends and family at their side, and neither one would feel lonely or isolated again.

They would have some kind of happiness together in their future, Marion was certain. If only because she couldn’t let her thoughts lend countenance to anything else.

As her thoughts turned more indulgent – _would Jester and Fjord want children? Would Marion get to be a grandmother?_ – she failed to hear the soft footsteps approaching from the direction of the stairs. Or, she failed to notice until it was too late to run and hide in the restroom.

_Not that she would ever do that._

To her right, just a step away from her, was Babenon. For the second time in a day, Marion was surprised to see how utterly unchanged he was – aside from the goatee, he looked like the same man who she had fallen in love with. The years had been… not _kind_ to him, necessarily, but he did not bear the marks of someone who had lived the difficult life that he had. He was lucky, as always. 

He stood there, his eyes wide, his hands held behind his back, watching Marion like she was a storm on the horizon.

“Hello, again,” he said, slowly.

“Hello, Ba—well, I suppose I should call you the Gentleman here, right?”

He nodded, casting his eyes down to his shining black shoes.

“That would be safer, yes. At least, while we’re in company.” He flinched when he realized what he had said.

Marion knew very well why he regretted his words, or why he may have felt that he misstepped. He was trying to be careful and cautious around her, but implying that they would be alone together was presumptuous. It was alright, though – Marion didn’t mind. She wasn’t thrilled about the idea of being alone with him, where he could watch her and see her every vulnerability. But there were things Marion didn’t wish to talk about without guaranteed privacy.

Not that she felt the need to reassure him. _Let him sweat for a little, it would be alright._

It was what he deserved.

“And you should call me Marion,” she said, standing up straight. She had forgotten how much taller she was than him, even in just her slippers. “It’s safe enough. Most people are still unaware of my real name.”

He nodded again, and looked at her, frozen in his place. A loud laugh from the bar below them startled them both, and they each paid the other the courtesy of pretending not to notice how jumpy the other was. 

Marion looked down, down to the bar, and tried to hide her smile. She was so nervous, so anxious, but she… she felt a little better knowing that she could still charm and disarm him.

Babenon, meanwhile, looked behind her and noticed the tightly-shut bedroom door behind her. _Standing at the balcony was a rather strange place to be,_ Marion realized. Babenon had always been observant, he would know something was going on.

“Is there something wrong with your room? Is it not comfortable enough? I could have you moved to another, just say the word.”

“No, no. That won’t be necessary, but thank you. I just let Jester and Fjord have a moment of privacy in my room.”

A crease formed slowly between his eyes.

“Jester and Fjord?”

“Yes,” Marion said, her smile growing wider as she stood a little taller. “You know. Our—our daughter,” the phrasing felt clumsy in her mouth. Jester had only ever been _her_ daughter. “And her charming half-orc friend?”

“Is there something wrong with them?” He asked, sounding quite clueless.

“The opposite, I would hope.”

Marion watched as Babenon pieced together his thoughts.

“Oh.” He muttered, his realization clear in his eyes.

“Yes.”

The crease between his eyes grew deeper, and he looked away, watching the bar below them with an unsteady expression. He combed his fingers through his neatly trimmed goatee – _a new nervous habit, perhaps?_ And after a few moments, he sighed.

“Fjord is lucky he made a good impression on me, the first time we met.”

“Fjord reminds me quite a bit of you, in some ways. A young, handsome sailor from the Coast, with a silver tongue and more ambition than you might guess.”

Babenon’s face immediately turned sour; his face twisted into a frown, and there was an anger behind his eyes that Marion did not recognize.

“In that case, he’s _very_ lucky he made a good first impression.”

A dozen things that she could say pop into Marion’s mind. Things she could say in defense of Jester, in defense of Fjord, in defense of the Marion that Babenon knew more than 20 years before. But everything that she thought that she could say to Babenon was either too diplomatic, or not diplomatic enough. So Marion let the silence between them settle for a moment, while she carefully picked her words. 

“Fjord," she finally said, "was one of the first people that Jester met after she left Nicodranas. They’re best friends. They make each other happy, and they give each other comfort and understanding. And they have already become pirates and criminals, but they did it together, so I have no doubt about their future loyalty to each other." 

_There. She has turned her own story around in support of her daughter._

Hearing her words, Babenon looked stricken and pale. He turned his body away from her and gripped the banister tightly between his hands. Marion actually felt a little giddy from saying that to him – something so honest and brutal, even if it sounded like she was speaking in gentle truths.

She distracted herself from the adrenaline coursing through her veins by counting the rings on his hand. Half of them were familiar and worn on the same fingers as she’d seen them twenty-some years before.

“Marion,” he whispered, his voice grave.

“Yes?”

“I came up here to tell you that I would like to talk to you alone. Today, or tomorrow, or the day after that, or – whenever, wherever you want, whenever you’re comfortable. Marion – I don’t expect forgiveness or reconciliation. I just want to talk to you, and tell you what happened. An explanation doesn't even make a dent in the profound debt that I owe to you, for everything that I’ve put you through, but Marion, but it’s the best that I can offer for now, and it’s the very least of what you deserve.”

_There’s that silver tongue, again. He pronounced her name the same was as he always had like it was a one-word song._

Marion nodded, agreeing with him. But she only agreed because that was what she always intended – Babenon did not need to convince her to speak to him in privacy. And while yes, she could have drawn it out, and made him suffer a little longer, Marion remembered very clearly just how much Babenon enjoyed her particular form of torture.

 _Not that this was – or that – they wouldn't – they shouldn’t –_

_Never mind._

“Tonight,” she answered, quietly, as the adrenaline in her chest faded, leaving behind a faint feeling of butterflies fluttering away in her heart.

“Tonight,” he echoed.

With a sharp nod, Babenon turned on his heel and walked away.

 _Tonight_ , Marion thought again.

She looked down, down at the bar below her. She looked at Jester’s friends, the ones who stayed behind at the bar while the others purchased more supplies. She looked at Babenon’s employees, who served him faithfully.

And then she looked over her shoulder, at the closed bedroom door. And she felt hope for her daughter, hope that she and her charming paramour would have the devoted, loyal love that she herself did not have.

And then she looked back down to the bar below her, where Babenon had caught the attention of the barkeep and was leaning over to talk in his ear. And she thought about the conversation they would have later that night, and the conversation they would have the night after that, and the night after that.

With a sudden feeling of sharp regret, Marion wished that she had brought her glass of wine with her when she stepped out of her room. She was quite certain that her daughter and Fjord weren’t getting up to anything too personal in her bedroom, she wasn’t about to interrupt them for a simple glass of wine. Certainly not after the conversation she'd had with Jester just minutes before. 

The wine would wait for her. Let them have their time alone.


End file.
